Jerry Schemmel is the familiar and respected play-by-play announcer of the Colorado Rockies on flagship station KOA in Denver.

Chuck and Lisa Mangus have been actively riding and racing their tandem for about 10 years. Prior to their focus on racing, they raised their two

Jonathan and Emma came to ultra-distance cycling from a joint love of cycle touring and growing addiction for cycle randonneuring.

Dan and Winnie’s first tandem ride together involved a rental bike out of San Francisco and a jaunt up Mount Tamalpais. Since then, their

Andy and Kami have ridden on tandem for the past 24 years. Living in both Boulder CO and Tucson, AZ, these hubs for elite cyclist training have

Come join LS&G on May 7, 2015 at the Melting Pot of Littleton

What: 4-Course Fondue Dinner Proceeds Benefiting Bikes for Kids
Date: Thursday, May 7
Time: 6:30p cocktails / 7p dinner
Where: Melting Pot – Littleton 2707 W Main St.Littleton
Tickets: $100 each or $175/couple

Fun, Fondue AND Prizes! This event is one-of-a-kind: enjoy a full 4-course fondue dinner (complete with complementary wine) and support Bikes for Kids at the same time. Everyone who purchases a ticket is eligible for fabulous prizes to be handed out randomly throughout the evening. The grand prize will be awarded to a lucky attendee at the end of the night. Our 4-woman RAAM team will host the event and may talk you into buying some socks or a RAAM time station. Remember, it’s all for the kids and $100 buys a bike and helmet for a DPS 3rd grader! Check out these sweet prizes:

• GRAND PRIZE: USA Pro Challenge VIP weekend valued at $5,000 which includes:

  Two(2) VIP passes to Stage Seven to the 2015 USA Pro Challenge on Sunday, August 23, 2015
  Two(2) VIP Caravan Rides during Stage Seven of the USA Pro Challenge on Sunday, August 23, 2015
  Two(2) Passes to the USA Pro Challenge Post Party on Sunday,August 23, 2015
  Two(2) VIP bags with official race merchandise

• Four Club level tickets with parking to the Bronco/Minnesota Game (valued at $1,000)
• Two Night stay at luxury home in Vail, Colorado – sleeps 10 (Valued at $2,000)
• One week at luxury townhouse in Fraser, Colorado – sleeps 10-12 (Valued at $3,000)
• One complete Women’s Rudy Project kit and gear (valued at $300)
• One complete Men’s Rudy Project kit and gear (valued at $300)
• Four additional VIP passes to USA Pro Challenge – Stage TBA (Valued at $400)
• Diamond and Sterling Silver LS&G pendant donated by Trice Jewelers (valued at $250)
• One complete Women’s LS&G kit (valued at $250)
• One complete Men’s LS&G kit (valued at $250)
• One Private Tour of the Clock Tower in Downtown Denver for 20 people (valued at $400)
• One Framed Original Ryan Muncy Photograph (valued at $500)
• One hour with Susie Wargin – Behind the Scenes at KOA (priceless)
• John Elway Autographed Football
• Cargo Gonzales Autographed Bat and Ball
• One Landscape photograph from Tad Bowman
• $175 gift certificate for EZ Entrees prepared meals
• $100 gift certificate for beauty products and consulting
• One, 1 hour massage with Lisa Piscopo
• One, 1 hour massage with Mary Jo Martin
• One haircut with Michelle Thayer
• One, 1 hour session of reflexology with Laurine Piper
• One month unlimited membership at eNRG Performance Center including sweat rate testing

RAAM 2015 starts in 5 hours!

We’re itching to get to the start line and… get going getting to the finish line! Here’s some quick reminders on how to follow the LS&G teams during the race.

Tractalis

http://www.tractalis.com/live/raam2015/html5/

This shows our most up-to-date location based on GPS tracker in the follow-vehicle. You’ll need to know our team numbers:

• T408 – Love Sweat & Gears
• T409 – Love Sweat & Gears – Tandems

They also have apps: (iPhone) (Android)

RAAM website

http://goo.gl/hwZTxt

This carries updates of our progress through the 55 Time-stations (aprx 1 every 55 miles), based on official race records. They also have a link to a map of that data. Again, use the team numbers as above.

Facebook Team page

https://www.facebook.com/lovesweatandgears

Make sure to “Like” and follow the team page. The team page will have updates on all three LS&G teams.

We’re also on twitter: https://twitter.com/LoveSweatGears

Ride Farther

http://ridefarther.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/Raammedia

This is the official Media outlet of Race Across America, and will host twice-daily video reports (also on their youtube channel) as well as maps, written reports, photo galleries and so on. Also they’re promising a live video stream from of the teams press conference and from the starting line, 12 noon PST today!

I looked at the date of the last blog post – December, 2013 – almost exactly one year ago.  An entire year has passed by without a post.  What does that mean?  Have I stopped thinking?  Stopped doing?  Stopped writing?  Some yeses, and some no’s but no maybe’s.  Let’s talk about what has been going on with LS&G over the last year which pretty much parallels what has been going on with me at the same time.

Let’s see.  I got new glasses.  They have progressive lenses which is a nice way of saying they are bifocals only there isn’t an obvious line in the lens.  That took some getting used to.  Blurred vision, missing stairs, feeling wobbly, similar to how we all felt in June of 2014 without RAAM.  LS&G was officially approved as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in May of 2013.  That was a culmination of hours and hours of work and pages and pages of paperwork.  YAY!  Done!  Now, where do we go from here?  The invisible line can truly only be seen from behind the glasses and not from in front.  The first thing we did was a bike distribution with Bikes for Kids.  With our fundraising efforts in 2013, we distributed bicycles to the entire third grade in a local school. Since I was wearing my new glasses, I could see the looks on the faces of all the kids who were receiving their very first, new bikes.  The excitement and the thrill were palpable.  But I am getting ahead.  There was a set-up.  Tim Kooser, the brains behind the bikes, had all the kids write an essay entitled “How I Would Change the World to Make It a Better Place”.  The kids were told that the winner of the contest, which was judged by their teachers, would win a bike.  One winner, one bike.  The essays were as genuine and as truthful as only kids can be at 9 years of age.  After the first winner, Tim asked if maybe there should be a second. To the chanting of “one more bike!” another essay was read and another bike and helmet was awarded.  And on and on until each essay was read, each child selected their bike and helmet.  Even without my glasses I could see the fruits of our fundraising and the joy and freedom and, perhaps, a small healthy lifestyle change brought to so many.

Part of our mission as a non-profit is (simply put) to get as many people on their bikes as possible. So, in August of 2014, LS&G led a bike tour for women only.  Calling it a Mother/Daughter tour in Summit County and facilitated by the great people of HeartCycle Colorado (www.heartcycle.org), it was really a tour for all women of any age and any ability.  We had 30 women ranging in age from 17-76 years of age, many of whom had never done an extended bike ride much less a bike tour. Another line conquered and talk about fun!  So many stories to be told and photos to be shared – topic for another post.

The next line to be crossed was the assembling of our goals for 2015.  We managed to get a bunch of kids on bikes as well as a bunch of women on bikes in 2014 – where is the next line?  The second part of our mission is to facilitate and mentor people interested in endurance cycling as a healthy lifestyle.  We are proud to introduce our team of tandems who will be racing RAAM 2015 in addition to our team of women.  This group of four tandem pairs is as diverse as they can be in experience, age, and profession but all have one common interest – to race RAAM to the best of their ability and do some good along the way.  Read all about each member of the team by visiting their bios.  This enthusiastic and talented bunch of cyclists will be fundraising on behalf of The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  And the women?  Yet another team with new racers mixed with experience who are ready to embrace the challenge.  Read all about the women by visiting their bios as well.  The women will be racing again for Bikes for Kids with the intent of including more than one school with their efforts.

This is an overview, obviously.  Stay tuned for more posts (hopefully in less than a year) highlighting our teams and our efforts.  Kind of like my glasses, everything is progressive.  RAAMing, biking, team building, eyesight – all progressive.

And so we roll.

There is a problem with racing RAAM. Or maybe there is a problem with me racing RAAM. That problem is, for a while following the race, I think I can do just about anything. Anytime. Anywhere. Anyhow. Anything. Case in point is the Pikes Peak Hill Climb which took place about 3 weeks after crossing the finish line in Annapolis. I thought to myself “why not?” So, I was having trouble sleeping . . . so, I was having trouble walking (it didn’t hurt to ride my bike, hip flexors were frozen in the bike position) . . . so, my internal organs hadn’t completely gone back to normal functioning. I raced RAAM, I can do it all, right? Right? RIGHT?

Let’s just say that in the first, oh I don’t know, quarter mile, I was already closing in on survival mode. Although I had a pretty good start and a pretty good finish, it was not a pain-free, piece o’ cake, ride up the side of a mountain. A big, honking, above timberline type of mountain. No air up there. Nothing but sky and snow – in July. And let’s not forget about the descent. Topping out at a weensy bit over 14,000 ft, the air is pretty scarce and trying to descend after an all out effort while your vision is a bit blurred, head is a bit loopy, and freezing body parts are dropping to the side of the road, constitutes a challenge in my book. They say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you glad you are still alive.

As the rest of the summer marched on, my RAAM hangover continued. I raced my bike a couple of times, I did a couple of Aqua-bikes (all the rage for aging triathletes who have knees and hips which are begging for mercy), I worked on updating our website, I did bunches of other stuff. I also did a bit of thinking. In spite of every great achievement any of us earns, the most important thing to realize is that we are human. Mortals. Some of us have different talents swimming in our gene pool but whatever that talent might be; it doesn’t flourish without constant nurturing, constant attention, and constant effort. I am not a special human doing ordinary things. I am an ordinary human doing mostly ordinary things with an occasional really, really cool thing thrown in there for focus. What would life be without a bit of focus? Focus on dreams and on future possibilities while remembering that it is the effort and focus that brings us ordinary mortals to the finish. And often times, that finish is pretty darn sweet.

Now, we are rolling full steam into what is left of the holidays and I see January and a brand new year just around the corner, I realize that although I may not be able to do anything I want at anytime, anywhere, anyhow, I can do SOME things I want at anytime, anywhere, and anyhow with desire. RAAM was not easy so why should anything else that I really want to achieve be easy? Pikes Peak is hard; keeping a life balance is hard. It all takes effort, time after time after time. Is it worth it to feel invincible on occasion? Oh. Yes.

Two weeks ago today, we were standing sleepy-eyed in the early morning light in Annapolis, MD waiting for the 8 man team from Walter Reed Bethesda Cycling Team to cross the RAAM finish line. LS&G had rolled across the same finish line one day prior and even though we had a need for rest and uninterrupted sleep, we dragged ourselves from the first soft, warm, CLEAN bed that we had occupied in a week to watch a group of true to life heroes finish what, to us, was a huge accomplishment but was, for them, another day at the office. This team consisted of 8 veterans all of whom had some sort of war related injury from missing one limb to missing several limbs to paralysis to PTSD. When asked how they were affected by the desert heat, one hero stated “This is not the first desert I have been in.”

It seems the first question I am asked when I talk to people about RAAM is whether I will do it again. I think to answer that question; I have to answer why I did it two consecutive years in the first place. I felt that I had reached a point in life when I began to wonder if there would be anything left to discover about myself. In childhood, adolescence, college years, early adulthood, even full-out grown-upedness, I knew things were going to happen. I was evolving, life was fluid, and there were surprises. And although I am nowhere near the end of the tunnel (I don’t think), I sometimes wonder not so much where I will go from here but what is inside still lurking that will amaze me. I can say that, for me, there has not been thus far an experience even close to RAAM. Something that fully engages my soul, my body, and my mind for 24 hours a day for as long as it takes to haul my tired tush across the country. Tiredness is a given and yet, all the senses need to be sharp and tuned in. All muscles are working. All brain power is focused. All doubts are conquered. All mysteries solved (there is a rational explanation for undocumented shadowy creatures in the night). This is not even mentioning the people I met along the way this year. The 2 person team from France, The Flying Frenchies, we became Facebook friends and communicated in sort of French-ish/English with the help of Google Translate and danged if we didn’t meet in Oceanside. The Allied Forces Team, the Walter Reed Team, the Pedals, Power and Ponytails Team, the extraordinary Boethling family, George Thomas – 2 weeks post shoulder re-repair – not to mention Micky Dymond and the entire Riding the Line production team, the list goes on and on and on and – yes, on.

And our crew. Talk about amazing. Twelve selfless people concentrating on . . . . US (or, in my mind, ME)! Where is the route, where are the changes, where is the rain, the wind, the smoke, where the heck is the RV (smiling here, just so you know)? That week, for them, was spent virtually shower free, restroom free, exercise free, in a caffeinated heightened haze watching, calculating, driving, navigating, cooking, serving, emptying, smiling, and whatever else-ing. I did spy a couple of them brushing their teeth, coffee cups in hand on the side of some unnamed road – slackers. It might sound repetitive but RAAM could not be conquered without an astute and outstanding crew. None is better than ours.

So, two weeks post-RAAM and it almost feels as if the experience didn’t happen. RAAM exists in a sort of time warp. While racing, everything is focused on the race. Suddenly, it is over and time to pick up the pieces of life that had happened in my absence. The RV has been returned. I freed my garage of all the assorted RAAM crap – amazing what was stored and squished in a 32 foot RV and two vehicles. All supplies have been sorted, boxed, and stored in a corner of my basement for . . . what? For next time? What? WHAT? All that remains unclaimed are a couple of lonely hot beverage mugs and those are the proof that it did, truly happen.

Yes, I am amazed. I am amazed how much more there is inside to discover. How many people, heroes and regular folks who do heroic things (like make milkshakes to die for in some remote general store in West Virginia), there are left to meet, how many experiences are left to be shared and how great life actually is. On a bike or off. Inside and out. Let the wonderment continue to bloom, blossom and grow.